Airlines look to resume full flight schedules in New York area

November 01, 2012|Reuters

* Airline losses from Sandy $700 mln to $1 bln -analyst

* Nearly 20,000 flights cancelled since Sunday

* Cancellations down to 750 on Thursday

By Karen Jacobs

Nov 1 (Reuters) - Major U.S. airlines moved to build upservice in the New York area on Thursday, with the number ofcanceled flights easing as LaGuardia Airport re-opened forbusiness in the wake of Hurricane Sandy.

Airlines had canceled about 750 flights for Thursday as oflate afternoon, according to flight-tracking serviceFlightAware.com. That was the lowest daily tally of haltedflights since airlines began cutting their U.S. flying on Sundayahead of the storm.

Delta Air Lines expected to operate about half ofits roughly 260 flights at LaGuardia on Thursday. At John F.Kennedy International, Delta operations are near the normalschedule, said spokesman Morgan Durrant.

United Continental expected to have a "more-or-lessnormal schedule" of flights at Newark, New Jersey, where it isthe dominant carrier, and JFK, according to spokesman CharlesHobart. "We're looking to concentrate any cancellations requiredby airport conditions to the United Express regionaloperations," he added.

Meanwhile, American Airlines planned to build up to fullschedules at LaGuardia and Newark. Spokesman Kent Powell saidthe AMR Corp unit added extra flights into JFK toassist customers that had been stranded by cancellations earlierin the week.

New York-based JetBlue Airways said it planned tooperate 80 percent of its total flights on Thursday, ramping upto a full schedule by Saturday. US Airways began flightsat JFK and Newark on Thursday and will resume service atLaGuardia on Friday, spokeswoman Michelle Mohr said.

U.S. carriers, which have canceled nearly 20,000 flightsfrom Sunday through Thursday, have lost millions in revenue inSandy's wake, airline watchers said. The New York-area airportclosures had a trickle-down effect as airlines were forced tocut flights in other major cities.

John Wensveen, head of airline advisory services at RadixxInternational, which provides distribution systems andmanagement consulting, said the cost to airlines from Sandy waslikely $700 million to $1 billion, including lost revenue fromcanceled flights and expenses involved in re-startingoperations.

"This is one of the most significant things that's happenedto the industry in a long time," he said.

Ray Neidl, an analyst with Maxim Group, said things shouldget back to normal by the weekend.

"Most airlines will take a (financial) hit in the fourthquarter; we don't know the magnitude yet," Neidl said this week.

If there is any silver lining for airlines, it could be thatSandy hit during a period that is typically slow for leisure andbusiness travel.

"If this storm in its full magnitude had come through inJuly, it would have been far more disruptive," said GeorgeHamlin, a transportation consultant in Fairfax, Virginia.